1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to conveyor ovens in general, and in particular to a conveyor oven capable of providing continuous, precise cooking of a variety of foods that require different cook times and thermal profiles, while preventing heat loss.
2. Description of Related Art
A conveyor oven typically has a first opening through which uncooked food enters and a second opening at the opposite end of the oven through which cooked food exits. A stainless steel conveyor belt is commonly used to carry food items through a heated cavity between the first and second openings. The conveyor belt extends past both openings sufficiently to allow safe insertion and retrieval of food items. This arrangement allows food items to be placed on the conveyor belt on a continuous basis to achieve sequential steady-state cooking.
When food items offered by a commercial food service operation, such as a restaurant, are to be cooked at the same thermal profile for the same amount of time, a conveyor oven is particularly advantageous. The operators need only set the temperature, the blower speeds and conveyor belt speed as necessary to cook the selected foods. Once the above-mentioned three parameters are set, the oven may be operated continuously without any further adjustments. With a conveyor oven, even a person unskilled in the art of cooking is able to prepare high-quality cooked food products simply by placing them on a conveyor belt of the conveyor oven. The ease of operation and high throughput make conveyor ovens highly desirable in restaurants and other commercial food service settings.
However, conveyor ovens also have many disadvantages. For example, most commercial food service operations offer a variety of different food items, such as pizza, chicken, vegetables and pie, which require a wide range of cooking times and thermal profiles. Even a single food order at a restaurant may include a variety of food items, and different food items require different cooking times. Conveyor ovens are very efficient when cooking similar food items, but not for cooking a variety of food items that require vastly different cooking times and thermal profiles.
Consequently, it would be desirable to provide an improved conveyor oven.